


The Huntress' Heart

by Kitty September (KittyAug)



Series: Lydia’s Lunchbox - A Teen Wolf Femslash Collection [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, F/F, Fairy Tale Elements, Hunters of Artemis, Implied Sexual Content, Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 10:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7218850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyAug/pseuds/Kitty%20September
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Allison was 18 years old when she first took her vows and picked up the silver bow of Artemis. [...] She had only ever dreamed of her Goddess and the moonlit wilds, of racing with her sisters and hunting the most mighty of prey. Immortal and perfect. [...] Her blood sang. Her very life was catharsis.</p><p>But all of that, well, all of that was before Lydia. After Lydia, everything changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Huntress' Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tepidwaterdialogues (sas)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sas/gifts).



Allison was 18 years old when she first took her vows and picked up the silver bow of Artemis. She had always known that she would swear herself to the Hunt. Even as a child, playing in the lavender fields of old Provence, she had known. Known it in her bones. The moon called her and she answered. Her eyes were keen and her bow string taut and true. There had never been another life for her. She had dreamed only of her Goddess and the moonlit wilds, of racing with her sisters and hunting the most mighty of prey. Immortal and perfect. Her life and her spirit had been complete the moment she strung her bow. Her blood sang. Her very life was catharsis.

But all of that, well, all of that was before Lydia. Because after Lydia, nothing would be the same again.

During Allison’s immortal years the world had progressed inexorably and had left the old gods behind. The Huntresses still hunted but their prey was getting weaker and fewer. The hunts grew shorter. They kept their virgin vows, and lived through ages more. Yet still, the old ways seemed further out of reach with every passing year. The nights seemed brighter yet the moon so much further. Her fellow Huntresses wandered further and further afield in search of adventure and blood. When Kira had announced her intention to travel westwards to the Americas, Allison had followed. She had no idea when they boarded that boat that it would lead her to her undoing. To her final hunt.

They could have flown, taken an aeroplane like real people. They were commonplace now. But when Allison was born flight was for birds and for Icarus. Her fear of the skies remained even as man marched onwards without her. Kira laughed and smiled at her, called her quaint, but boarded the boat nonetheless. Kira was even older than Allison. But what, after all, is a few months longer to immortal women.

California in summer reminded Allison of Cyprus. Dry and warm, dust on her skin and copper gold stones on the ground. There was an aching potential in the air. Rain and magic hidden by the horizon’s hills. She held her head up high, slung her bow on her back and breathed in her new home.

They travelled inland. Searching for forests and beasts of myth. They were not disappointed. The wolves and demons of Beacon Hills would offer spot fit for a queen, or a demigod. It seemed as good a place as any to stop a while. The leylines met and branched and promised thrills and blood, and magic too. It was a good place. A dark and night lit place. The sport was good and the shadows deep. Allison did not know what more a Huntress could want.

She did not meet the red haired harridan on her hunt. She did not find her through her bowsight. Perhaps if she had she would have been prepared.

Lydia found her, as it happened. In an electric lit shopping mall.

“That looks good on you,” Lydia said. 

Allison turned and smiled. Unafraid despite the fire in Lydia’s too bright eyes. Allison had seen her sisters fall, over the years. The first werewolf was a woman who broke her vows for love. But all those sisters fell into the arms of men. Allison knew no fear when she turned and met beauty.

“Thanks.” Allison gave a little spin letting the other woman admire her grace as much as the leather jacket she was trying on.

“I’m Lydia,” the girl said holding out her hand for Allison to shake. 

There was a spark of something when their skin touched for that first time. Something like sin but still unrecognised. Allison felt it, even if she did not know it for what it was, she felt it like sun on flesh. And Lydia smiled like the temptation she would become.

Maybe it was inevitable. Just another sign of progress. Just another fable for the Gods. Just another deadly dream come true.

They became friends first. It all seemed so safe. So natural. Warm and real.

“It’s dangerous,” Kira warned her. “Getting too close, they might see what we are. It isn’t like it was. This isn’t Greece.”

Allison just laughed. She did that a lot more after meeting Lydia.

Time passed. Days became weeks became months. Coffee and chocolate and shopping and Lydia’s smile all became part of Allison’s life for the first time. Sank in through her skin and became part of her. Impossible and improbable to resist. Like Lydia’s touch. Casual and gentle and so, so very soft. 

But even the Idles didn’t stay idyllic.

When the full moon came the Hunters hunted.

Allison ran through the woods, slipping from shadow to shadow and tasting magic on the wind.

When she came to the clearing edge, bow drawn and body ready, she expected a werewolf or a dark fae boy. She did not expect to find Lydia.

The clearing was bright in the moonlight. Silver and green on Lydia’s skin. All of her skin. Skyclad and reckless, Lydia stood near a natural spring. Water glistened in her hair and ran down her back. She had been bathing, alone in the woods on a full moon night. And Allison knew that was a bad sign. Normal girls didn’t do things like that. Not here. Not now.

Normal, safe girls didn’t make her heat race like that. Normal, safe girls didn’t glow like Jason’s fleece in the dark. Allison lowered her bow anyway. Her guard had always been lowered with Lydia anyway, why fight it. She certainly couldn’t fight Lydia.

Lydia turned and gasped when she saw Allison standing at the clearing's edge. 

“How long have you been there?” Lydia asked. She reached for her silky gown but she wasn’t in a rush. Her skin was cream and her body hair was golden. More blonde than red, and somehow tempting in ways Allison had forgotten how to know.

“Not long,” Allison said. It was not a lie. But it was long enough.

“Oh…”

It didn’t take long after that.

They fell into bed the same way they fell in love. On purpose but without meaning to. By accident yet slowly and with care.

Lydia’s skin was soft and her hair smelled like honey and apples. Her lips tasted of skin, and her body tasted of salt and copper and hope.

Allison felt her vows break and she didn’t care.

Snap.

Like a broken bowstring. Like a fractured arrow. Like any other now meaningfully meaningless thing.

“Will you be alright?” Lydia whispered into Allison’s hair. They lay in bed, tangled in each other’s limbs, cooling sweat and lust warmed skin. 

“I don’t know,” Allison said. It was true. There was so much truth in Lydia that she didn’t know how to lie to her. “I don’t know what I’ll become, but I know it was worth it.”

Lydia kissed her with force. Said things with lips and tongue that words couldn’t understand. Things like thank you and I’m sorry and I need you. Their kisses told stories of hope and loss and lust. Of dreams and broken promises and new ones made. Like a scar, Allison lost her oldest oaths and made new ones through Lydia’s flesh.

Allison waited but the change she feared did not come. Her immortality faded from her like mist. Burned off under the light of dawn and the warmth of Lydia’s eyes.

Artemis is not a forgiving Goddess. But the moon is far away and Lydia’s skin held so much of the sun. Allison never did find a curse in her mortality. Only blessings in her lover’s body. She could not hunt wolves with her sisters. But she hunted cries of pleasure from Lydia’s lips, and she felt a thrill better than any hunter’s kill. She fell from grace, but she climbed back into Lydia’s arms. She gave up the Hunt and found herself a home. Her blood still sang, it just found a different tune.

As she fell back into mortality and fell asleep in Lydia's bed, she realized that maybe this was what she had been hunting all along.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are love. You can also find me on tumblr: <http://kittyaugust.tumblr.com/>


End file.
